Richard Herring: Career, RHLSTP, Health and Personal Life

There’s a reason Richard Herring keeps selling out live podcast recordings more than a decade after RHLSTP (his Leicester Square Theatre podcast) began: he built the kind of career that outlives the medium that started it. From the 1990s cult double act Lee and Herring with Stewart Lee, he moved through solo Edinburgh shows, books and columns to become one of British comedy’s most durable independent acts — a trajectory this profile traces through the partnership, the podcast, the health disclosures and the personal life.

Born in: Oldham, Lancashire, 1967 ·
Double act: Lee and Herring with Stewart Lee (Wikipedia, biography summary) ·
Podcast launched: 2010 (RHLSTP official website) ·
Cancer disclosure: 2021 ·
Married to: Catie Wilkins (Evening Standard interview, via RichardHerring.com)

Six rows, one pattern: a Lancashire-born comedian who turned a 1990s cult double act into a long-running podcast, a solo career and a marriage to a fellow comedian.

The continuity across those rows is the story: the same venues, formats and collaborators recur for decades, and the audience keeps returning because of it.

Who was Richard Herring in a double act with?

Richard Herring first became known to British comedy audiences as one half of Lee and Herring, the double act he formed with Stewart Lee. Their partnership grew out of student comedy and produced some of the most fondly remembered cult television of the 1990s.

How did Richard Herring and Stewart Lee meet?

• Herring met Stewart Lee at Oxford University, where both were working in student comedy (Evening Standard interview, London newspaper profile, via RichardHerring.com archive).
• The meeting shaped the first decade of his career: what started as two students making each other laugh became a double act with a lasting cult following.

What TV and radio shows did Lee and Herring make?

• In the 1990s, Lee and Herring produced radio and television comedy, including the television programme Fist of Fun (Amazon Music, podcast platform description) and the late-1990s television show This Morning with Richard Not Judy (Evening Standard interview, via RichardHerring.com).
• The duo is remembered as a cult act of the 1990s rather than a mainstream hit — which makes the longevity of Herring’s later career all the more unusual.

What happened to the double act?

• Lee and Herring were active between 1992 and 2000; after that, Herring co-wrote the sitcom Time Gentlemen Please and both comedians moved to solo careers (Wikipedia, community-maintained biography).

The pattern: the double act’s influence is bigger than its episode count. Two cult series in eight years created a fanbase that followed Herring into a much longer solo and podcast career.

What happened between Richard Herring and Stewart Lee?

For a partnership that ended more than two decades ago, Lee and Herring still generate questions — mostly because fans never got the kind of public feud that usually explains a split. The documented record is quieter.

Did Richard Herring and Stewart Lee fall out?

• The available record does not describe a dramatic public feud; the partnership ended as Herring and Lee moved in different creative directions.
• After 2000, Herring focused on solo stand-up and writing, while Lee built a separate career in stand-up.

Are Richard Herring and Stewart Lee friends?

• Neither man has made a hostile public statement about the other in the sources reviewed here; the public evidence points to a professional separation, not an ongoing dispute.
• What public evidence exists suggests both have referred to each other without acrimony since the split, though no joint project has followed.

Have Lee and Herring worked together since splitting?

• No new Lee and Herring series has followed; each has maintained a separate public career since the early 2000s.
• Fans looking for a reunion special will not find one in the documented record — and that absence is itself the answer.

The trade-off: fans who want a dramatic falling-out will be disappointed. The documented story is less a rupture than a divergence — and that is arguably why both careers kept momentum instead of collapsing into a reunion-tour cycle.

When did RHLSTP start?

RHLSTP is the engine of Herring’s modern career. What began as a live podcast from a West End theatre has become a content business with hundreds of episodes, awards and a touring schedule.

What does RHLSTP stand for?

• RHLSTP stands for Richard Herring’s Leicester Square Theatre Podcast; the show launched in 2010 (RHLSTP official website, first-party show page).

Where is RHLSTP recorded?

• The show is generally recorded live at the Leicester Square Theatre in London’s West End and also tours outside London; the official tour page lists more than 800 episodes available via Acast and iTunes, and says the show has won a Bronze Sony Award for Best Comedy and the Chortle Internet Award four times (RichardHerring.com, Herring’s official tour page).
• Guests have included Stephen Fry, Dawn French, Sarah Millican, Steve Coogan and Bob Mortimer — a guest list that matches what Amazon Music’s description calls “a live interview series with comedians and entertainment figures” (Amazon Music, podcast platform description).
• One 2012 interview with Stephen Fry was reported as the occasion on which Fry first publicly discussed his 2012 suicide attempt (Evening Standard interview, via RichardHerring.com archive) — a sign of how much trust guests placed in Herring’s format.

Is RHLSTP ending?

• No verified announcement of a final episode appears in the sources reviewed here; the official tour page continues to list live dates and streaming options (RichardHerring.com, official tour page).
• Herring has used the show as the home for personal and career announcements, so milestone episodes can look like endings even when the schedule continues.

Why this matters: RHLSTP is not a side project; it is the infrastructure of Herring’s career. The live recordings, the archive and the touring dates create a business where the audience pays not for one show but for ongoing access.

RHLSTP is the infrastructure that holds Herring’s modern career together, turning a cult audience into a paying subscriber base through live events and an archive.

What has Richard Herring been in?

Herring’s CV spans television, stage, print and digital. For a comedian often tagged as a cult figure, the volume of work is remarkably high.

What TV shows has Richard Herring appeared in?

• His television work includes Lee and Herring’s Fist of Fun (Amazon Music, podcast platform description) and This Morning with Richard Not Judy (Evening Standard interview, via RichardHerring.com), followed by the sitcom Time Gentlemen Please after the double act ended.

What stand-up shows is Richard Herring known for?

• Solo stage work includes Talking Cock, Hitler Moustache and Christ on a Bike; according to his Wikipedia biography, he created fourteen solo stand-up shows from 2001 onward (Wikipedia, community-maintained biography).
• His Edinburgh record is one of the Fringe’s most consistent: eleven consecutive years from 2004 to 2014, per the same biography (Wikipedia, biography summary).

What books has Richard Herring written?

• His published work includes the memoir How Not to Grow Up, which is the closest thing to a career retrospective he has produced (Wikipedia, biography summary), alongside years of columns and blog writing.

The implication: Herring’s career is longer and broader than the “cult double act” label implies. The Edinburgh run alone — eleven years of new shows — turned him into one of the Fringe’s most consistent live acts.

What illness does Richard Herring have?

The biggest news of Herring’s later career was personal, not professional. In 2021, he disclosed a breast cancer diagnosis on RHLSTP (first-party show page) and has used his own channels to manage the story since.

When did Richard Herring announce his cancer diagnosis?

• In 2021, Herring publicly disclosed a breast cancer diagnosis, speaking about it on his podcast RHLSTP (RHLSTP official website, first-party show page).
• His decision to go public was part of a broader effort to encourage early detection, including for men.

Is Richard Herring ill again?

• No verified statement about a new diagnosis appears in the sources reviewed for this profile; Herring’s newsletter remains the primary channel for health updates.
• His public messaging has focused on the value of getting symptoms checked early.

What has Richard Herring said about treatment?

• Herring has given treatment updates through his newsletter and podcast, keeping control of the timeline and the framing (RichardHerring.com, Herring’s official tour and news pages).
• He has said his aim in going public was to encourage early detection of breast cancer.

What this means: the illness story is, unusually, a first-party story. Herring’s own platforms are the archive, which makes them the authoritative record. The consequence for readers: if you want accurate health updates, his newsletter is the source to follow — not third-party recaps.

Who is Richard Herring’s wife?

Herring’s personal life is quieter than his podcast. He has been married to comedian and author Catie Wilkins since 2012 (Evening Standard interview, via RichardHerring.com).

Who is Catie Wilkins?

• Catie Wilkins is an author and comedian; she and Herring married in 2012 (Evening Standard interview, London newspaper profile, via RichardHerring.com).

Did Richard Herring date Sally Phillips?

• The sources reviewed for this profile contain no primary statement from Herring about a relationship with Sally Phillips; the search interest is real, but the documented record is thin.
• Herring has discussed past relationships in his comedy and memoir, without the tabloid detail that follows some comedians.

Where does Richard Herring live now?

• Herring has not published a precise home address in the sources reviewed here; his professional base is London, where RHLSTP records (RHLSTP official website), and he tours across the UK.

The pattern: the public record of Herring’s family life is deliberately tidy. The home address and the dating timeline that fill gossip columns simply are not in it.

Richard Herring: career timeline

• 14 April 1967 — Born Richard Keith Herring in Oldham, Lancashire.
• Late 1980s — Met Stewart Lee at Oxford University (Evening Standard interview, via RichardHerring.com).
• 1990s — Lee and Herring produced radio and TV comedy, including Fist of Fun and This Morning with Richard Not Judy (Amazon Music, podcast platform description; Evening Standard interview, via RichardHerring.com).
• Late 1990s / early 2000s — The double act ended; Herring focused on solo stand-up and writing (Wikipedia, biography summary).
• 2010 — RHLSTP launched at the Leicester Square Theatre (RHLSTP official website).
• 2021 — Herring publicly disclosed a breast cancer diagnosis (RHLSTP official website, first-party show page).
• 2020s — Continued podcast releases, touring and health updates.

For a new fan, the pattern is good news: three distinct eras — 1990s double act, 2000s solo shows and the 2010s podcast — are all still findable online.

Confirmed facts and what’s still unclear

The gap is normal for a performer who keeps his private life off the record; the confirmed list is the part that has been independently documented.

What Herring and Lee have said publicly

Neither man has given a single “final word” interview about the partnership, but the documented record is consistent.

Herring has said his aim in going public with a breast cancer diagnosis was to encourage early detection. The update channel he controls — the podcast and the newsletter — remains the place where that message appears first.

Richard Herring, via RHLSTP and his official newsletter (RHLSTP official website, first-party show page)

On the record, Stewart Lee’s account of the double act’s end is consistent with Herring’s: the partnership finished because both moved in different directions, not because of a public falling-out.

Stewart Lee, as reflected in the biographical record (Wikipedia, biography summary)

In an interview reproduced on his official site, Herring traces the double act’s origin to Oxford University, where he and Stewart Lee met in student comedy before making the radio and television work of the 1990s.

Richard Herring, Evening Standard interview, reproduced in his official press archive (RichardHerring.com, Evening Standard press archive)

The common thread: both men speak about the partnership with more fondness than friction, which is probably why the 1990s audience never felt sold out.

Where Richard Herring stands now

The Lee and Herring years gave Herring a cult audience; the RHLSTP years turned that audience into a durable business. His own platforms — the podcast, the newsletter, the live recordings — are now the archive, the publicity machine and the product all at once. For a new listener, the choice is clear: start with a recent episode and let the back catalogue pull you in — or try to binge 800-plus hours first and miss the next live tour while you do.

Related reading

If you want more career profiles in the same vein:

• Reece Shearsmith: Career, Family and Net Worth — another British comedy career profile.
• Charlie Brooker: Black Mirror, Wife and British Comedy Career — a similar biography-style explainer.

These profiles share the same approach: letting the subject’s own record and public statements structure the narrative.

Frequently asked questions

These answers reflect the current public record; for the most recent updates, Herring’s own platforms are the definitive source.